People in the News/Awards -- December

AAFP News Now has learned of three AAFP members who were honored this past month.

Denise Rodgers, M.D., of Newark, N.J., EVP for academic and clinical affairs at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, or UMDNJ, and a professor of family medicine at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, has been named the university's interim president(www.umdnj.edu). Before becoming EVP, Rodgers served as university chief of staff. She is a past president of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, or STFM, and a former residency program director at the University of California, San Francisco, General Hospital. An expert on health care disparities, Rodgers delivered the Stephen Jackson, M.D., Memorial Lecture at last year's National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students.

Two FPs have been tapped to serve on the leadership team(www.wmich.edu) for the nascent Western Michigan University School of Medicine in Kalamazoo. Elizabeth Burns, M.D., has been named the school's associate dean for clinical affairs, and Peter Ziemkowski, M.D., will serve as associate dean for student affairs for the school.

Burns is president and CEO of the Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies, which is managed by teaching hospitals Borgess Medical Center and Bronson Methodist Hospital. The hospitals' parent systems -- Borgess Health and Bronson Healthcare, respectively -- are partnering with the university to develop the new medical school, which is slated to open its doors in 2014. Burns is also an STFM past president. Ziemkowski is an associate professor of family medicine at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, as well as clerkship director and assistant program director for the Kalamazoo center's family medicine residency.